The Marketing Book 5th Edition

Choose

Off-line

Choose

On-line

Buy Buy

Fulfil Fulfilment (digital)

658 The Marketing Book

Dyson has drawn this analogy with the elec-
tronic marketspace:

You put Coke machines in places where you

think people might want to drink a Coke. On

the Internet you put Amazon buttons in places

where there might be people inclined to buy

books.

But it’s not just digitizable products and ser-
vices – all products and services can extend
themselves on-line by considering their on-line
representation for place of purchase and dis-
tribution. Other products, such as cars, are
partially sold on-line and eventually bought
off-line using mixed-mode buying, where some
activities of the buying process are completed
off-line and some on-line.
Off-line marketing communications and
on-line marketing communications through the
website should integrate with different buying
modes, as shown in Figure 25.8. Common
buying modes include:

 On-line purchase. Some customers want to
search, compare and buy on-line. Does your

website accommodate all stages of the buying

process? Few products can be delivered

on-line, so fulfilment is usually off-line.

 On-line browse and off-line purchase–

mixed-mode buying. This is when customers like

to browse, look or research on-line, and

eventually purchase off-linein a real store or in

a real meeting. Some of these customers might

like to browse on-line but purchase via fax or

telephone because of security and privacy

issues. Does your site have fax forms and

telephone numbers for placing orders or

taking further enquiries? Does your site

integrate with other communications channels?

Some sites also have ‘call-back facilities’, which

allow visitors to request a telephone call

from a salesperson to complete the

purchase.

Another tactic related to place is an organi-

zation’s on-line representation. Berryman et al.

(1998) highlighted the importance of place in

e-commerce transactions when they identified

the three different locations for on-line B2B

purchases shown in Figure 25.9. When com-

Figure 25.8 Alternative buying modes